


Just a Day, Just an Ordinary Day

by Ithinkwehaveanemergency



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22220896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/pseuds/Ithinkwehaveanemergency
Summary: A typical day in the life of Jenna Geyer, where nothing really happens.  Just bonding with the newest member of her household and watching her son be an accidental trainwreck.So, y'know... the usual.
Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Comments: 45
Kudos: 232





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tabbytabbytabby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/gifts).



Jenna wakes up shortly after 7 am.

When she gets to the stairs, she smells coffee and furrows her brow. With her husband gone at a conference, she usually has to make her own coffee.

"Morning." Theo's voice greets her as she reaches the kitchen. She takes in the mess of books and papers spread across half of the kitchen table. "There's coffee."

"Thank you, Theo." Jenna coos and ruffles his newly trimmed hair as she passes behind his chair. She reaches for her mug and pours herself a cup before turning back to her permanent houseguest. "By the way, I like the new look. Did Angel finally tell you to stop looking homeless and scaring off the customers, or are you trying to impress someone?"

Theo looks up at her through his eyelashes, still hunched over his coursework. Jenna wiggles her eyebrows and rests her elbows on the kitchen island. He stares for a moment, silently, one eyebrow raised, and then looks back down at his work.

"Mmhmm. Fine." Jenna scoffs, amused, and looks at her phone. "Oh, you're gonna come with me to Angel's right? I told him I'd drop the jeep off sometime today. If not, I can just uber back."

"No, I gotta pick up my paycheck anyway, so it's no problem."

"Why don't we stop and set you up a bank account while we're out. You've already gotten one giant step away from living like the homeless this week."

"Boy." Theo looks up again with the same unimpressed look, putting his pen down this time and taking a sip of his own coffee. "You really like reminding me that I was homeless, don't you?"

"Meh." Jenna shrugs. "It's just out of love. It was hard to stop you from leaving every morning like some kind of guilty squatting vagrant. I just like to keep pushing your buttons about it. You're doing a really good job at being a helpful, contributing member of this household, y'know? And of this community, Theo. Look at you. Taking community college classes and working full time."

Theo bites his lip and looks down at his papers. He picks up his pen and taps it against the table a few times, then looks back up at the woman who against all good sense offered him a place in her home.

"Thanks." He mumbles and quirks his lips up in a quick smile. "I appreciate helping me get that set up and paid for. You're right, I need my own bank account. If you'll go with me…?"

"Of course, Theo!" Jenna grins excitedly. "You're getting pretty easy to wear down about things. I wish Liam listened about things I suggest as much as you do."

"What about me?"

Liam enters the room like a tornado, just barely missing knocking things over as he passes. He grabs milk from the fridge, doesn't even pause as he one-arm-hugs his mom and reaches for the spoons in the same motion.

"Nothing, my love." Jenna sighs. "Just saying that it's been good seeing you so happy and smiley lately. I wonder if there's anything that might be causing this new you."

"Uh-huh." Liam nods and finishes fixing his bowl of cereal, immediately spooning a heaping mouthful past his lips.

Jenna rolls her eyes and looks back at her phone.

"Hey. I'm picking up your mom from the shop later when she drops the jeep off. We'll swing by and pick you up after class?" Theo looks up from his book at Liam and takes a long sip of coffee.

He watches Liam walk around the kitchen island, shoveling cereal into his mouth at disturbing speed. Liam doesn't look his direction, but nods again while he vigorously chews. Theo shakes his head fondly and takes another sip of hot coffee.

"Yeah. That'd be cool, thanks. See you at one." Liam agrees absently after he swallows his food. He takes one last bite before drinking some of the milk from his cereal bowl and then setting it in the sink. "Sorry, mom. I'm super late, Mason's gonna kill me. Love you."

"Yeah, yeah." Jenna sighs, barely looking up from her phone and coffee. She aims an eyeroll at Theo and the chimaera smirks back before returning to his book.

Liam stops at the kitchen table and gathers his books from where he had been working alongside Theo the night before. He shoves them into his backpack carelessly before zipping it up and putting it on with haste.

"Don't forget your Calculus homework." Theo mumbles, pointing to the packet a few inches from his own course work.

"Oh my god, thank you." Liam exhales, hurrying back to Theo's side of the table and grabbing the paper. "Okay, bye."

Then, as if its a completely normal, everyday act, he leans in and kisses Theo.

It's lightning quick. Less than a second long. Over before Theo can kiss back. In fact, the front door has slammed and Liam is nowhere to be seen by the time Theo realizes what's happened.

"Did he just-"

Jenna's voice breaks Theo from his shock and the nineteen year old man looks up at her, glad he's meeting an expression that matches how he feels.

"Yeah. No, I…" Theo mumbles and then nods. He blinks in surprise and tilts his head. "He definitely did that."

"And was this... Have you guys ever-"

"No! Nope. That's…" Theo shakes his head vigorously, looking in the direction of the door, as if it will bring Liam back with any sort of explanation of what just happened. When nothing happens after a moment, he looks back at Jenna, who is still stuck blinking in shock. "Yeah, that's never happened before. We don't-"

Jenna's phone cuts Theo off as it vibrates twice, loudly, against the kitchen counter. She picks it up immediately and swipes the screen. Theo watches her whole face light up in amusement before she types out a text, clearly responding to the ones sent to her. Then she sets it down again and starts cackling uncontrollably.

Theo's face crumples up even further in confusion as she gathers her composure, her phone vibrating intermittently with incoming texts all the while.

"My son is a disaster." Jenna wheezes, moving to take a sip of her coffee. She shoots Theo a sympathetic look before grabbing her phone again. "Good luck with that one, sweetheart. I don't know why you're even interested. Did you see the way he was eating that cereal? I mean… Gross, much?"

Jenna makes a gagging face, but then immediately smiles down at the panicked texts coming in from her son, begging her to tell him that he didn't actually do what he thinks he did.

She simply shakes her head and walks away without another word as Theo stares at his coffee in distress, no doubt wondering how this is his life. She almost trips up the stairs as she hears Theo grumbling to himself as she leaves the room.

"At least he didn't talk with his mouth full like he usually does _."_


	2. Just Trying to Get By

Jenna Geyer has been simultaneously dreading and looking forward to this moment for hours.

She and Theo are leaving the bank, just down the street from the high school, where Liam is out of class in just a few minutes.

"You know…" Jenna muses as they sit at a red light. "You could just drop me off first, if you want some time alo-"

"Nope." Theo says sharply, his teeth practically clacking together around the 'p' in the short response.

"Fine." Jenna sighs heavily. "You know, if you want to know what _I_ think?"

Theo slowly turns his head in her direction with a blank stare. His lips press so tight together that they start to lose color, and Jenna raises her hands up in surrender.

"Fine."

The traffic starts to move again and they sit in silence while Theo drives closer to the school. They get to the spot outside the math and science building where Liam always meets Theo, the two days a week that he picks up the young werewolf after classes. Theo puts the car in park and watches the clock.

Jenna sends a quick text to her husband, and then absently flicks through instagram.

"Alright." Theo breaks the silence. Jenna looks up at him expectantly. He takes a deep breath through his nose. "What do _you_ think?"

Jenna smiles softly as she watches Theo's fingers beat a nervous rhythm into his thigh. She looks up into his eyes and sees the insecure young man she let into her home for the first time, four months before. She thinks about all the evenings she found him reading in his car after Liam had let him spent the night on their couch with strict instructions to hang around for breakfast in the morning. She thinks about the day she'd seen him borrowing her tools to work on his own truck. She remembers how intimidated he'd looked when she brought him to Angel's Auto Shop and shoved the help wanted sign into his still grease-covered hands.

"I think that you've worked very hard for what you've gotten in life, Theo." Jenna shrugs. "If it's something you want, I think you'll get it. I fully believe that."

Theo looks away, out the windshield, and gnaws on his bottom lip.

"My son is going to be a lot of work." Jenna laughs. "But I think he's worth it, if you want my _completely_ unbiased opinion."

Theo laughs softly and looks at the blonde woman, smile still unsure.

"You don't-" He looks away again when his voice catches, and he grips the steering wheel, shifting in his seat. "You don't think he deserves better?"

Jenna's heart breaks a little and she barely holds back from reaching across the center console to pull the young man into her arms and tell him that he's going to be okay. That he isn't the tragic ghost of himself that haunts him every day. That he has people who believe in him.

"I think he deserves someone who will make him happy. It's been years since I've seen my son this happy." She says instead.

Theo looks at her in surprise and then his gaze flicks to movement outside her window. Jenna follows his gaze to find a strangely sedate Liam walking toward the truck. She smiles at her son and he returns it with a small smile of his own before hopping into the backseat of the cab.

"Hey. Thanks for picking me up, guys." Liam sighs. "Pretty sure its gonna rain any second."

"No prob." Theo says, turning out onto the street. "Not supposed to get the storm til Monday, but the air does feel pretty staticky. It's probably moving past us. Gonna hit the bay instead."

"Isn't the niners game tomorrow?" Liam frowns. "Isn't it the one that Mason and Corey and all their friends were going to?"

"Oh yeah, the playoffs game, right? They wouldn't shut up about it." Theo nods. "Are they going to even play if there's a giant thunderstorm?"

"Eh, NFL games don't usually get rained out, but yeah… it could get postponed, I suppose. Man, that would suck for them, they all got work off and everything."

Jenna rolls her eyes and zones out, opening her phone and starting a new whatsapp group.

> _Jenna: What. The. Heck. We just picked up Liam from school and they both have ignored this morning's events. They are legitimately both pretending it never happened._
> 
> _Mason: Hey Jenna! Who is even… You told, Scott? Lololololol. Nice group name. THE INCIDENT. Corey is dying right next to me._
> 
> _Scott: What is wrong with them? Asddfadhjjk of course she told me, why would she NOT tell me?_
> 
> _Malia: This is so stupid. Just lock them in the basement, Jenna._
> 
> _Mason: What are they saying?! Are you still in the car with them?_
> 
> _Jenna: They're talking about football. Like… legitimately discussing the NFL… I'm._
> 
> _Scott: =/_
> 
> _Malia: Boooooooooo._
> 
> _Mason: Theo doesn't even LIKE football?! Are they talking about me and Corey going to the game? What, why?_
> 
> _Jenna: Sigh. I can't._

"Mom!" Liam's voice cuts into her texting as he grips her shoulder. "You've gotta be kidding me.

Jenna looks over her shoulder and is met with her son's face just an inch from hers where he's reading her text messages with glowing eyes. 

"Liam." Jenna squints back at him, then shrugs his gentle grip off, putting her phone back into her purse. "It's very rude to look at other people's private conversations."

"You-" Liam hisses. "Are you serious right now? Really? It's even more rude to gossip about your own son! It's none of any of their business."

Jenna snorts and raises her eyebrows.

"Uh, no. You're my child. Your business is my business."

"That's besides the point!" Liam shouts in indignation. "You're the one making a big deal to Scott and Malia about how I kissed Theo when I clearly wasn't thinking and it was just a stupid mistake!"

A throat clears loudly from beside them.

Liam and Jenna freeze at the words that came out of the eighteen year old's mouth. Jenna's jaw drops at the same time that Liam's eyebrows raise in awareness of what he's said. They both turn their attention to their driver, the sound of the turn signal clicking loudly in the sudden silence of the cab.

Theo scratches his head and then takes a deep breath, patiently waiting for the light to turn green. 

"I just mean…" Liam starts and then trails off awkwardly. He remains speechless as the light finally turns in their favor, and Jenna narrows her eyes at him judgmentally.

Theo continues driving them the quarter mile down the road and then parks on the curb. He lets the truck idle and runs his hand through his hair.

"You guys go ahead." Theo says quietly, picking up his phone from the cup holder. "I told Parrish I would come by the station to take a look at something, so uh… I'll be home later."

"Theo-"

"Probably not til after dinner." Theo cuts Liam off, looking down at his phone in concentration.

"Thank you for the help with the jeep dropoff." Jenna smiles tightly and reaches out to rub Theo's shoulder. "I'll leave some leftovers in the fridge for you. Oh, and tell Parrish he's welcome to come by and have dinner with us anytime. I haven't seen him in ages. He can bring his young man, too, if Derek is in town."

"Sure, I'll let him know." Theo nods and attempts a smile, directing it over his shoulder at Liam too, as if what the other boy said hasn't affected him at all.

"Will you be back for Hawaii 5-0?" Liam asks, hopefully. Their Friday night family tradition is one of Theo's favorite parts of the week.

"Maybe." Theo shrugs. "You guys can watch it without me, I can catch up some other time."

Jenna sighs and gets out of the car, her son pausing to stare at Theo for a moment before following suit. She walks to the front door with a heavy heart, feeling terrible for her poor idiot son and his big mouth.

"Liam." Jenna exhales, opening the front door and setting down her purse. She stops at the entrance to the kitchen and turns around to she her son biting his lip raw with a distressed look on his face. She gives him a knowing smile and pulls him in for a hug. "I know a _great_ recipe for apology pie."

  
  



	3. Just a Boy, Just an Ordinary Boy

Jenna sits at the head of the kitchen table, wine glass near empty.

"So, you see, it's not like I _meant_ that it was a _mistake._ " Liam's hands do this strange flailing thing that she's not too familiar with, and then he crosses his arms and sags against the edge of the kitchen island counter. He starts to mumble, exhausted by the seven minute rambling explanation he's been going through since they put the pie in the oven. "I just meant I didn't mean to do it. Y'know, like at that _moment_."

Jenna raises her glass and finishes her last sip of Pinot Grigio.

"Because it's not like I think that it's a bad thing!" Liam stands up straight again, his voice raising along with his posture. "I didn't mean to imply that kissing him was a stupid thing to do! That wasn't what I was trying to say at all."

Jenna uncrosses her legs and stands from her chair, heading to the fridge for a refill.

"Mom!" Liam whines, now sounding petulant. Much more like her son and less like an awkward, frantic, rambling mix of Scott and Stiles. "Are you even going to say anything?"

Jenna retrieves the wine bottle and sets it on the island next to her glass.

"Oh, is this a dialogue?" Jenna frowns and arches her brows in curiosity. "I thought you were just rehearsing, _poorly I might add_ , for the appropriate audience of this… apology? _Was it even an apology?_ I'm not sure what you were going for here, Liam."

Her werewolf son growls lowly and stalks over to her vacated seat. He hunches over onto the tabletop and puts his head in his folded arms. Jenna rolls her eyes at the theatrics and procedes to pour her third glass of wine.

"Honey, what do you want?" Jenna sighs and puts the bottle away in the fridge again, making a mental resolution to stop there, or else yoga will be hell in the morning.

"I want help!" Liam groans into his arms.

"No, sweetheart, see… this is me helping." Jenna snorts. "What do you _want_? From Theo, I mean. What is it you want from your relationship with him?"

Liam raises his head from his arms, but stays propped on his elbows, shoulders hunched. He bites his lip, staring down at the table.

"I don't know." He shrugs, getting slightly hysterical again, one hand gesturing wildly at nothing. "I like how we are now. I didn't mean to screw it up. I honestly don't know why I did that! I don't want him to stop wanting to spend time with us. With _me, specifically,_ I guess."

"Okay." Jenna frowns. "But, honey, you guys are _very_ close, and _strangely_ codependent. Like, you can't even make plans without checking with the other first, and you feel obligated to coordinate your schedules… And you can see why that might make one - _or both_ \- of you start to feel like there's something _more_ there."

Liam looks up with a slightly guilty expression that leads Jenna to believe that her son might not have been quite as oblivious to his friend's growing no-so-platonic feelings for him as she had thought.

"But you need to figure out if that's what you really want. So that nobody ends up hurt here." Jenna walks over to Liam and runs a hand through his shaggy locks. He stares at her, eyes glossy and pinched with anxiety. "And sweetheart, its okay if you don't feel the same way. It's okay if it _was_ a mistake and you _don't_ want to be more than friends. You just need to talk about it. You can't just sweep this under the rug. He obviously is very invested here, Liam, he's not going to leave you. No matter what you decide."

Liam looks down again at his hands and Jenna leans down to kiss the top of his head.

"And if you _do_ decide that you want to take your relationship there…" Jenna walks back toward the oven to check on the pie. "You should probably go to Mason for advice, not me. Aside from what I see on the CW, I'm not very versed in the delicate intracacies of gay young adult romances."

"Mom!" Liam shouts in exasperation. "Holy shit. Oh my god. Why do I even talk to about anything."

"Uh, don't pretend you didn't call me your best friend until you were like 11, young man." Jenna scoffs.

"Oh please." Liam rolls his eyes. "I just did that so I wouldn't hurt your feelings. I stopped when I was 11, because you finally got married and didn't need me to lie to you anymore."

Jenna gasps in mock horror and throws the oven mitt in her hand across the kitchen at her son, who grins and catches it easily before it hits him in the face. She huffs and turns to grab a new oven mitt from the drawer.

"Come help me test the pie, you ungrateful wretch." Jenna hisses playfully.

Liam laughs and hurries over as she pulls the pie from the oven and sets it on the cooling rack. He grabs a toothpick from the dispenser on the counter before checking it.

"Perfect." Jenna smiles, just as Liam looks over his shoulder at the front of the house.

"Theo's home." He whispers, nervously.

"I'll go uh… watch the game or something." Jenna pats her son on the shoulder and grabs the remainder of her wine. "Give the pie some time to cool, and most _importantly_ , give you some time to talk."

Jenna mentally pats her _own_ shoulder as she walks into the living room and turns on the television. She can't help but listen for Theo's entrance into the house before she turns up the volume. She hears the chimaera shut the door and then his soft footfalls against the wood and tile leading to where Liam is waiting for him.

"So…" Liam's voice carries softly through the mostly quiet house. "I made you an apology pie?"

"Oh my god." Jenna hisses to herself, unable to contain her reaction to the indelicate opening from her loveable dope of a child.

"Mom! Shut up and stop eavesdropping." Liam shouts from the kitchen.

Jenna hears Theo laugh and she takes it as a good sign and shouts back, "Fine!"

She turns up the volume and watches the last quarter of the Warriors game that was playing when she turned on the box. She winces at a bad shot and pouts as she looks at the anything but promising score from the reigning championship team. The minutes tick on and she gets invested in the game, down to last few seconds of the now nail-biting game.

During a timeout commercial break, she hears the sweet sound of her boys laughing in the kitchen and feels a sense of relief and pride settle in her bones. She has a feeling that she knows exactly how the conversation turned out and that she'll have to implement some new house rules about the potential new arrangement between the young men living under her roof. But she puts the stressful thoughts aside and just appreciates that Liam _is_ very happy, and most importantly he feels comfortable talking to her and coming to her for advice.

She and her extraordinary son have been through so much together, a lot of it just them two against the world. And as much as Liam likes to joke that it wasn't true, there were a few years there, where they went through some hard times, and they were _absolutely_ each others best - and sometimes _only -_ friends. Her son means everything to her. And seeing him happy and healthy is all she could ever ask for.

Jenna doesn't hear anything else after that, and the game restarts. She shoots a brief text to her husband that she has exciting news when he gets home tomorrow, and then she gets sucked in again as the clock winds down. She stands and cheers loudly at a buzzer beating, game winning three pointer.

"I take it the Warriors won?" Theo shouts from the kitchen.

"Yep!" Jenna sits down again and calls back, just as her son rounds the corner carrying a plate of pie and a glass of water, Theo close behind him.

"I'm glad you're not missing Friday night T.V." Liam says, glancing over his shoulder at Theo, who is holding two plates each with pie on them. "I need someone to suffer through my mom complaining about how old they look and how it makes her feel old with me."

"Hey!" Jenna scolds, holding her hand out for her pie, which Theo hands over with an apologetic smile, as if he has anything to do with the rudeness of her offspring. "Yeah well, I like watching with Theo better anyways. Even though he only sits through the show because he thinks Scott Caan is hot."

"Gross." Liam squints at Theo, face scrunched in disgust. Theo just blushes, shrugs and takes a bite of pie now that he has taken his spot of the couch. Liam continues making a face. "Really? He's like… my mom's age."

"Excuse me! You don't have to sound like its impossible to be hot at my age." Jenna squeals, kicking out a foot when Liam tries to sit next to her on the couch. "You've got quite a lot of negative things to say about the woman who helped you bake this pie."

Liam rolls his eyes and maneuvers around her outstretched foot to sit between her and Theo on the couch, sitting on the edge of the seat and leaning forward to hunch over his giant slice of chocolate pecan butter pie.

"That's not what I meant." He says through a full mouth of food.

"You know I'm gathering that you never actually mean the words that come out of your constantly food-stuffed mouth." Jenna mumbles, ironically, around a forkful of her own pie.

Liam ignores her and glances at Theo again. He raises a judgemental eyebrow before turning his attention to the television.

" _Danno_? Really?" Liam scoffs, scooting even further forward in his seat and grabbing the remote. He trades it for his almost empty plate and begins looking for their show on the DVR.

"Meh." Theo pushes his apology pie around on his plate, cutting it up patiently, and sneaks a glance at Liam. He smiles and then looks over at Jenna with a mischievous eyebrow raise. He sets his fork down on his plate and reaches out with his free hand to scratch his fingers affectionately against Liam's back. "I guess I've got a soft spot for really short, whiny, irritable blondes with big mouths."

Liam looks over his shoulder at Theo, confused. He narrows his eyes and asks in earnest, "Was that supposed to be a dig at my mom?"

Jenna snorts and chokes on her bite of pie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All titles are from Vanessa Carlton's Ordinary Day


End file.
